Children enjoy WW2 military vehicle convoy

There were eight vehicles on the run organised by the Guernsey Military Vehicle Group. From Town they headed towards the Bridge and along the coast, and then went inland ending up at Patois at Bruce Russell for coffee and cake.

Among the crowd of onlookers in Town was four- year-old Jacob Alderton, dressed in camouflage and helmet.

The young fan was full of wonder at all the history on show. ‘I love army trucks and I love bunkers, especially the ones that you go down into. My favourite vehicle is the one with sirens, and we used it for my uncle’s wedding,' he said.

Laura Dyer, events secretary for the GMVG, was driving a 1943 Dodge Weapons Carrier named after her as ‘the Laura Lou’ by her dad.

In 2019 they took it over to Normandy to mark the 75th commemorations of the D-Day landings.

She said the vehicles brought history to life and were a great way of educating young people about the era.

‘We were born into it, me and my sister, and we have a great passion for the vehicles. I really enjoy these outings, all of the smiles on the children’s faces are lovely to see. When we’re driving along the road everyone waves or beeps or sometimes they pull over to watch us going past.

‘We get a lot of island support and great reaction to our static displays as well.’

Paul Bourgaize was behind the wheel of what was originally a French army hotchpotch jeep but had been rebuilt to effectively become a US army jeep.

‘It’s actually what’s known as a hotchpotch because post-war in the 1950s the French built these under licence when they ran out of original US army jeeps.

‘We believe this was a French army jeep that ended up having quite a bad accident and it was returned to the depot and rebuilt, so there’s a lot of US parts on it and that’s why it’s called a hotchpotch.

‘We decided to model it as a vehicle that would have been used by the US Navy which would have been stowed on board a ship.’